Camping Trip - An Atticus Rhodes Oneshot
by rizanicole
Summary: My first Atticus Rhodes one shot, written a long time ago. I hope you enjoy it! **Originally published on Quizilla 6/17/2012**


"So you're telling me that if I use this card, I can reverse the effects of your last spell card?"

"Yep, you got it."

"Arrgh! This doesn't make any sense!"

Alaina ran her fingers through her hair in a frustrated way as she tried to understand what Alexis was saying to her. They were currently both sitting on the floor of their dorm, staring at Duel Monsters cards.

"Yes, it does. Here, just listen to me explain it again."

Alaina tried once again to listen to her friend's patient explanation, but couldn't seem to retain anything. It was like she was hearing a completely different language. Alexis had been trying to tutor Alaina in dueling for almost three hours now, but the two of them had made little progress. Alaina had somehow made it into the Obelisk Blue rank because of her good grades, but she certainly wasn't the best duelist.

"...so that's why this card can be used to counter my card's effect." Alexis looked up into Alaina's face for any sign of understanding, but the other girl seemed completely unaware of her presence. "Uh, Alaina? You in there?"

Alaina shook her head to try to bring herself back to the present moment. When she realized that she'd missed everything Alexis had been trying to teach her, she sighed. "I'm sorry, Alexis, but I'm starting to think there's no hope for me. Thanks for trying, though."

Alexis sighed in return. "Don't worry, you'll get it. You're just tired right now. Let's pick it back up later."

Alaina nodded, grateful for the break her friend was offering her. Alexis stood and turned around to put her deck back in a safe place as Alaina began stuffing things into her backpack. As she was packing up the sheets of notes she'd been trying to take, Alexis spoke again. "Oh, Alaina. There was one other thing I wanted to talk to you about."

 _Please don't let it have to do with dueling,_ Alaina thought. "Sure, what is it?"

Alexis turned back around to face her, a slightly sneaky look on her face. "You have to answer honestly, okay?"

"...Alright."

"Do you like my brother?"

Alaina didn't say anything for a moment. _Crap! How'd she figure that out?_

"Of course I like your brother. I mean, he's never given me a reason not to like him, right?"

Alexis's smile only grew wider. "That's not what I meant and you know it. Now c'mon! Tell me!"

Alaina couldn't help but blush and look away as she told Alexis the truth. "Yeah, I do like Atticus."

"Ha!" Alexis said. "I knew it!" Then, after thinking for a minute, she added, "Why didn't you tell me?"

Alaina just shrugged. "I don't know, I guess I figured you might think it was weird. And if you didn't think it was weird, you would try to set us up, which doesn't sound so great, either."

Alexis opened her mouth to protest Alaina's last statement, but closed it again when she realized her friend was right. "Of course I don't think it's weird. You're my two favorite people on this island, so I'd be happy to see you together! I do think it officially makes me the only girl at Duel Academy not interested in Atticus, though." she said with a laugh.

Alaina laughed a little, too. "Yeah, I think you're right. But seriously, no trying to set us up, okay?"

Alexis tapped her finger against her chin as if she was thinking. A small smile was playing on her lips. "How about I promise to _tell_ you before I try to set you two up?" she countered.

Alaina sighed, but was unable to keep from smiling back at her friend. "It sounds dangerous, but I don't have much of a choice, now do I?"

Alexis grinned at her cheekily and shook her head.

"Fine, it's not likely it'll make a difference, anyways. Atticus already has so many female admirers that I don't think I have much of a shot." She was unable to keep a slightly sad edge out of her voice.

"Sure you do! You have the advantage that Atticus and you are actually friends. He's never spoken more than two words to most of those other girls," Alexis pointed out. "In fact, I think I can get you two together quite easily. All he needs is a little push."

"And just how are you going to pull that off?"

"Don't worry, I'll think of something. Now we should probably go to bed, it's almost one."

Alaina glanced up at the clock and nodded.

The two got ready for bed quickly, but Alaina had a hard time falling asleep. She was anxious to see what Alexis would come up with to get her together with her long-time crush.

She sighed lightly. Alaina certainly hadn't meant to fall for Atticus' charms. In general, she was pretty unimpressed with guys that lots of girls went after, but there was something about Atticus's honest, fun-loving nature that she hadn't been able to resist for long.

 _Who knows? Maybe Alexis's plan will actually work out._ After tossing and turning for about an hour, she finally fell asleep.

The next day, Alaina was sitting at a table with her lunch waiting for Alexis to come join her. They'd agreed to meet here after morning classes to brainstorm plans for what Alexis had recently termed "Atticus Catching."

"Hey, Alaina!"

Alaina twisted around in her seat to see Alexis walking quickly towards her. One look at her face made it clear that she was very excited about something.

"Hey," she said as Alexis sat down next to her. "What's got you so cheery?"

After putting her food down, Alexis turned to look at Alaina, practically beaming. "I have the best plan ever for hooking you up with Atticus."

 _Oh, dear._ "Really? And what have you come up with?" She was both excited and nervous to hear Alexis's plan; there was no telling what it would involve.

"You remember that camping trip we have planned for the long weekend?" Alaina nodded in response. They had an extra day off from classes this weekend, so the two of them were going to go camping by the lake in the woods for a couple of nights. It wasn't the most intense form of outdoor activity, considering how close they would be to the dorms, but the two had decided it would be fun, anyway.

Alexis continued, unable to keep the smile off her face, seeming proud of her genius plan. "Well, I think we should invite Atticus to come with us!"

Several thoughts rushed through Alaina's head at the idea. _Alexis. Atticus. Me. Alone. The woods. Bugs. Having to pee in the middle of the woods. This hardly sounds attractive! He'll never fall for me out there!_

Before she had a chance to say anything, though, Alexis continued her pitch. "It would just be the three of us, so we would be away from all of Atty's fangirls. And besides," she added with a little smirk, "I could make sure you two had plenty of opportunities to be alone."

Alaina was just about to open her mouth to point out the flaws in Alexis's plan, when they both saw Atticus walking towards them.

"Hey, girls," he said as he reached their table. "Mind if I join you?"

"Not at all," Alexis said. Alaina nodded her head in agreement. Atticus took a seat across from them.

"So, what's up?" he asked.

"Actually," Alexis began, not meeting his eyes. "We were just talking about you."

He smirked as one of his eyebrows went up. "Oh, really? I know I'm extremely appealing and all, but I didn't expect it from you, Sis."

"Yeah, yeah," Alexis said, rolling her eyes. She continued what she'd been saying. "Alaina and I are going camping this weekend, and we wanted to see if you would like to go with us."

Alaina could do nothing but watch in silent horror as Alexis put her evil plan into motion.

Atticus considered her offer for a minute, still smirking. "I see. So you need a big, strong man to protect you in the wilderness." He flexed one not-very-muscular arm.

"Yes," Alexis said sarcastically. "That's exactly why we were asking." She paused for a moment to take a bite of her sandwich. "But seriously. You wanna come with us?"

"Sure! I'd love to spend the weekend with my two favorite girls." Atticus said, flashing them one of his signature smiles.

Alexis rolled her eyes. "It doesn't work on us, Atty."

"Suuuuure it doesn't." He then seemed to notice Alaina's silence. "You're awfully quiet today, 'Laina. Are you okay with me coming with you guys?"

"Of course!" she said with a smile, not wanting to give off the wrong impression. "We'd be happy to have you along."

"Cool." Atticus said, smiling back at her.

And that was how Alexis put her plan into action without Alaina being able to say no.

At the end of the week on Friday, the three of them left the dorms with all their supplies and headed towards the woods. The girls quickly noticed that Atticus's bag was by far the biggest.

"What in the world do you have in that bag, Atticus?" Alaina asked, laughing.

He glanced over his shoulder at the bag. "We're gonna be out there for two whole nights, right? Gotta make sure we have plenty of food!"

Alexis and Alaina shared a look that implied "Really?". But they didn't say anything.

He studied what the two of them were carrying for a moment. "You gals both have a lot too, though. Here, let me help you with that." He took the fold-up tents from their arms, ignoring their protests, so that they were left each carrying only a sleeping bag and a small bag of clothes. He now was carrying way more than either of them, but he seemed happy to help them out. Alaina couldn't help but smile at his kindness.

After about an hour of walking, the three of them arrived at their destination- the lake in the middle of the woods. Once they had set up the two tents (one for the girls and one for Atticus), they decided it was time to make supper.

After about fifteen minutes, they managed to use matches to get a fire started. Atticus pulled out skewers and some hot dogs from his giant bag of food, and they attempted to cook them over the camp fire. Considering that no one died, they counted supper as a success, though Atticus did catch two hot dogs on fire and had to extinguish them in the lake.

"Jeez, Atticus! If you're the one so worried about us running out of food, you should really stop dunking hot dogs in the lake!"

"I'm sorry, Sis! This is harder than it looks!"

After dinner, they just sat next to one another near the fire and looked at the stars for a minute. "It really is pretty out here," Alaina mused.

"Yep," Atticus agreed, stretching his arms out to put them around the shoulders of the girls seated on either side of him. "But nothing," he said, looking from one of them to the other with a smile, "Could be as beautiful as you two."

Alexis laughed and immediately removed Atticus's arm. "I told you already, Atticus! It doesn't work on us."

"Awww, you're mean! At least Alaina will always love me!" He wrapped both his arms around Alaina and buried his head on her shoulder, pretending to cry.

Alaina just laughed and patted Atticus's back in a pretend-comforting manner. Even though she knew he was just playing around, she couldn't deny that she liked having him so close to her. "There, there, Atty. Everything will be okay. Now get off of me."

He dropped the act with a small laugh and removed himself from Alaina. She couldn't help but miss his warmth as soon as he was gone.

"Well girls," he said a few minutes later as he stood up, "I think I'm gonna hit the hay. I'll see you two in the morning. Goodnight!"

They both said goodnight to Atticus as he went to his tent, and soon after, they put out the fire and got into their own tent on the other side of the campsite.

Once they had zipped up the entrance to their tent and were satisfied that Atticus couldn't hear them, they began to whisper.

"See!" Alexis whispered excitedly. "I told you this would work!"

"What are you talking about? He was just being Atticus! He does stuff like that all the time!"

"Well, yeah, he's always a weirdo! But I really do think I can get the two of you together on this trip!"

"How?"

"I'm not exactly sure yet, but it'll happen tomorrow night! Just you wait and see!"

After a few more minutes of whispering, the two laid down in their sleeping bags to go to sleep.

Alaina lay awake for a few minutes before falling asleep, thinking about what had happened. _He was just goofing around_ , she thought. _It didn't mean anything._

But when she thought about it a little more, she saw that Alexis did have a point. Sure, he wasn't especially concerned about personal space, but he didn't usually attack people with hugs. _Is there a chance that he might actually like me?_

Not wanting to get her hopes up too high, Alaina forced herself to stop thinking about Atticus and went to sleep.

The next day went by fairly quickly. The three of them had quite a time attempting to cook food over the campfire, as they rarely succeeded and often ended up eating the various snacks Atticus had brought along instead.

"See! I told you guys we would need this stuff!"

In the afternoon, Atticus tried to teach Alexis and Alaina to skip rocks over the water on the lake. He could get his to hop seven times, but neither of the girls were very good at it. "Here," he said, as he stood behind Alaina with his hand on hers as she held a stone. She could feel the warmth from his body on her back, as he was very close. "You have to flick your wrist like this." He moved her hand for her a quick motion, but her stone only jumped once before sinking into the water with a "plop." To be fair, though, Atticus's close proximity wasn't exactly helping her to concentrate on throwing a rock.

In the evening, they cooked hot dogs again for supper, and much to their surprise, none of them caught on fire this time.

"I must be getting the hang of this!" Atticus said with a laugh.

After they had eaten, Alexis caught Alaina's eye and looked at her with a smirk that sent a clear message: "It's time."

Alaina immediately became nervous and motioned for Alexis to stop, but it was too late.

Alexis stood up from her place next to the campfire and started walking towards the woods.

Once Atticus noticed her leaving, he got a confused look on his face. "Where are you going, Sis?"

Alexis looked back over her shoulder at the two of them. "I heard there's a great view of the ocean from a cliff not too far from here. I'm gonna go see if I can find it."

"Oh, okay. Do you want us to come with you?" Atticus asked.

"No, I'll be fine. You two just stay here and hold down the fort." And with that, Alexis walked off into the woods and out of sight. Just before she disappeared beyond the trees, she looked over her shoulder again and mouthed "Good luck" to Alaina.

"Well, Alaina," Atticus began after a moment, poking at the fire with a stick, "it's just you and me."

She nodded in response. _How the heck is this supposed to work? I don't know how to start off something like this!_ she thought. Just as she was mentally cursing Alexis, she involuntarily shivered from the cold. Unfortunately, Atticus noticed.

"Hmm? You okay, Alaina?" He stopped playing with the fire and turned his attention to her.

She nodded again. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little cold." Even though they were sitting in front of the fire, the chill of the night air was still around them, and it was colder out than on the previous night. "I would have packed warmer clothes if I knew it got so cold out here at night."

"Yeah, it's pretty chilly," Atticus agreed. He scooted over to sit closer to her and wrapped his arms around her in a warm hug. "There," he said. "Is that any better?"

Alaina blushed as she looked up into his kind eyes and nodded. "Thanks, Atty."

"No problem," he said as he smiled at her and pulled her even closer to him.

They sat like that without speaking for a few moments, with only the crackling of the fire and the sounds of crickets to break the silence. Though she was quite content in Atticus's arms, Alaina had no idea what to do or say next, and Atticus was being quieter than usual. _What's he thinking about?_ she wondered. _Should I tell him, or should I wait to see if he makes the first move? He probably doesn't even like me, anyway. Why would he, when he has all those other girls?_

After about thirty seconds more of dealing with her increasingly pessimistic thoughts, Atticus put his hand under Alaina's chin and raised her head up to meet his eyes. "What's wrong?" he asked with concern in his voice. "You look sad."

Alaina blushed again when she realized that her emotions must have been showing on her face. "N-nothing. I'm fine."

Atticus sighed, and she could feel his warm breath against her face. She shivered again, but he either didn't notice or chose not to comment on it. "You know you can tell me whatever it is, Alaina. We're friends, right?"

"O-of course we are!"

He laughed at her. "Okay, then tell me what's on your mind."

She continued to hesitate, though. He sighed again, and seemed to be thinking. Suddenly, it looked like a lightbulb had gone off in his head. "Alright, then. How about, I tell you about something that's been bugging me, and then you tell me your problem?"

She was a little thrown off by his suggestion, but nodded in agreement. This would at least give her time to come up with a plausible excuse.

"Well, ya see," he said, shifting his arms around her as he turned his head to look up at the star-filled sky. "There's this girl I really like, but I don't know what to do about it." He looked at Alaina's face to check for a reaction, but she was being impressively unreadable at the moment, and just nodded for him to go on. He turned his gaze back to the stars. "The thing is, most girls fall all over me without me even having to do anything. But this girl is different. I want to tell her how I feel - how she's the most beautiful, wonderful girl I've ever met - but I'm afraid she won't feel the same way." He paused for a second and looked back down at Alaina once again. "What should I do?"

Alaina's heart was beating way faster than usual by the time Atticus's story was done. Based on the way he was acting, she didn't see how he could be talking about anyone other than herself, but she was still afraid to jump to conclusions. He was looking straight into her eyes now, clearly waiting for a response, so she said the only thing she could think of at the moment. "I-I think you should tell her how you feel. You'll never know if you don't try, right?"

He nodded and smiled at her, moving his face even closer to hers. "Good idea," he said, looking directly into her eyes. "I think I'll try it."

At that moment, he leaned forward the last couple of inches and connected his lips with hers. His touch was soft and gentle as his lips moved slowly across her own. As soon as she recovered from her immense shock, Alaina responded and slowly began to kiss him back.

After another moment, they pulled back, ending the kiss. "Alaina," Atticus began, looking into her eyes, "In case you hadn't noticed, you're the one I really like. You are the most awesome girl I've ever met and you mean the world to me. I know we've just been friends up until now, but I think of you as more than that, and I wanted to ask you how you feel about me."

Alaina couldn't help but smile as she answered him. "I really like you, too, Atticus. I have for a long time now, I just didn't think you'd like me back because you already have so many girls chasing after you."

He laughed at her statement. "Yeah, that's true, but they ought to give up. They need to learn that I have eyes only for you." She blushed at his sweet statement, and he smiled at her.

He leaned back in and kissed her again. After a few seconds, she started laughing, which caused him to pull away. "That's not exactly encouraging to me, you know." he said, a smile playing on his lips.

"I'm sorry," she said, still laughing a little. "I just can't believe Alexis's crazy camping trip plan to get us together actually worked."

As she expected, he looked surprised, but what he said next surprised her, as well. "Wait, you knew about this plan?" he asked.

"Yeah," she began, confused. "Are you saying that Alexis told you about it, too?"

"Yeah, I didn't think you knew, though! Alexis has known that I liked you for over a month, and she told me after lunch that day that she had invited me to come with you guys so she could get us together."

"What? You mean Alexis knew you liked me and didn't tell me? Did she tell you that I liked you?"

"No! I had no idea you liked me back until just now!"

"Ugh! Atticus, I think we've been played."

As if on cue, Alexis walked out of the woods into their clearing. "Hey, guys. Everything going well?" The smirk on her face clearly told the two of them that she knew what had happened. But her proud expression began to falter as she took notice of their glares. "Uh, guys? Is everything alright?"

Atticus was the first to speak. "You knew Alaina liked me and you didn't tell me?!"

"And you let me suffer through thinking Atticus didn't like me when you _knew_ he did?!"

"And you lied to both of us about your evil camping trip plan?!"

"Calm down, guys!" Alexis said, effectively cutting off their flying accusations. "I knew you'd be mad about it when you found out, but at least you're together now. And that's all that really matters, right?" She sounded almost timid, as if she were afraid of their wrath.

After a moment, Alaina sighed and looked at Atticus. "I guess she's right."

His expression softened as well. "I suppose so. But don't lie to us like this again, Sis. Okay?"

"Fine," Alexis said, her smirk back in place now that she felt she was out of danger. "But you've gotta admit, it was a pretty good plan."

Atticus and Alaina both just shook their heads at her like she was hopeless.

"Well," Atticus said, smiling at Alaina, "I guess there's just one thing left to ask you."

"Oh really? And what would that thing be?"

He kissed her on the forehead. "Will you be my girlfriend and fight by my side against the evil forces of my fangirls?"

Alaina laughed and smiled back at him. "Of course."

He gave her a huge smile and leaned back down to kiss her again, their moment interrupted only by Alexis "awww"-ing in the background.


End file.
